Which players have attacked fans?

Plus: Players who turned their backs on the beautiful game (4); Fallen champions; and goalkeepers booked for diving. Send your questions and answers to
knowledge@guardian.co.uk

Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough (white collar), grabs a football supporter, one of hundreds who swarmed onto the field after Forest's 5-2 victory over Queens Park Rangers in a Littlewoods Cup quarter-final. One Forest supporter told the Press Association that she saw Clough hit at least four people. Photograph: PA/PA Archive/Press Association Ima

"I noticed in this weekend's Observer that a Colombian player was sent to prison earlier this year after shooting a fan," wrote Ed McMillan last week. "Other than the obvious Cantona kung-fu kick, are there many other example of players attacking supporters, particularly their own?"

Eric Cantona is by no means alone in his aggressive attitude toward supporters. Javier Flórez was the Colombian midfielder who went too far after losing in a local tournament final earlier this year. The Atletico Junior player shot at a group of supporters, killing one, who chanted "weak, weak, weak" at him as he drove past. Flórez explained he was "drunk and angry" when it happened, following his release from prison on a £45,000 bail.

Somewhat less tragically, Paul Haynes recounts the story of Tom "Pongo" Waring, an Aston Villa striker (in more ways than one) in the 1930s. "The story goes while playing for Aston Villa in a match at Villa Park, Waring had gone to fetch the ball that had gone out of play," he writes. "He then heard someone making an insulting remark, waded into a crowd, punched the offender and then received a round of applause when he returned to the pitch. He was neither sanctioned, sent off, punished by his club/the FA nor was he charged by the police, and remains a legend with Aston Villa supporters to this day."

Adam Fleet suggests Gerry Armstrong who "left Brighton under something of a cloud, having clambered into the stands during a reserve game and headbutting a fan for making disparaging remarks". Indeed the former Northern Ireland international was charged with GBH after the incident — following the first red card of Armstrong's career – during a Sussex Cup tie in January 1988 that left the spectator, Wayne Marmont, requiring six stitches in a gashed forehead. Armstrong left the club a fortnight later, and after a court appearance was conditionally discharged for a year and ordered to pay £200 compensation and £20 costs.

In March 1994 there was a riotous end to Fisher Athletic's game against Wealdstone, with Fisher's David Ward running the width of the pitch, wading into the crowd and punching a fan who had been barracking him on the side of the head. An FA disciplinary hearing dished out a two-week ban.

Manchester City's Craig Bellamy added his name to this roster of shame on Sunday, after appearing to shove a fan who had run on to the Old Trafford pitch following Michael Owen's late winner for Manchester United and as Mark Hughes (and reader Henry Young) point out Brian Clough cuffed a pitch invader while manager of Nottingham Forest and received a touchline ban for his trouble

Major League Soccer supporters also seem in inflame players' ire. David Beckham confronted Los Angeles Galaxy fans earlier this year, and Clint Mathis was fined $500 for something similar in 2003, though neither could be construed as an outright attack. Unlike the incident in 2001 when Tampa Bay's Mamadou Diallo, MLS's top goalscorer in 2000, lunged toward and threw a punch at a Colorado Rapids fan as he walked off the pitch at full-time following a 2-1 defeat. The Rapids fan, who Diallo accused of racial abuse, apparently held off the attacker with the help of an umbrella and the Senegalese was handed a four-game suspension.

PLAYERS TO TURN THEIR BACKS ON THE GAME (4)

Over the past few weeks we've been chronicling the players who have walked away from football before their time had come. And here's the latest installment:

Paris Georgakopoulos George Pappas writes with the skinny on the twice-capped creative midfielder who helped Panathinaikos to two league titles and two Greek Cups in the late 80s and early 90s. In November 1991 he was offered a five-year contract renewal, asked for better terms and was flatly denied by the then powerful president of Panathinaikos, Giorgos Vardinogiannis. The laws of the time (and the fact Olympiakos, the only team with the ecomonic and political clout to ride to Georgakopoulos's rescue, were going through a major financial scandal) meant his contract was automatically renewed. "He saw the rest of the season from the stands, preferring to spend more time on his studies," writes George. "After a year Olympiakos made an offer but Vardinogiannis said that he "would sell him even for €1.5m". After that Georgakopoulos took the decision to stop football at the age of 26 and since then he focused on a career as a civil engineer."

Sebastian Deisler "All the fun and joy has gone out of my game," said Germany's one-time wunderkind on his retirement at the age of 27 in 2007. "I don't want this torture anymore." Deisler was torn apart by injuries, but depression may have been the final nail in the coffin of a career that had promised so much at Borussia Mönchengladbach, Hertha Berlin and Bayern Munich. As Raphael Honigstein summed up following the midfielder's retirement, "Deisler will forever remain Germany's next superstar".

Craig Johnston Liverpool's versatile Australian, writer of the Anfield Rap, retired in the summer of 1988 to care for his seriously ill sister. "I have been playing football since I arrived in this country as a 14-year-old triallist," he said. "But there's more to life than soccer." The Reds were initially left baffled by the situation and formally suspended him every two weeks, with the intention of offering a new contract when his deal expired at the end of the 1988-89 season. Graeme Souness tried to tempt Johnston back to the club in 1991, but the player preferred at that point to concentrate on other interests, including, famously, the invention of the Adidas Predator boot.

Hidetoshi Nakata Japan midfielder who retired at the age of 29 following the 2006 World Cup. "it was just my time to quit," is the enigmatic reason he gave for hanging up his boots and he has since pursued his interests in travel and fashion.

Ty Harden The 23-year-old LA Galaxy defender retired in the summer of 2008, saying "I wanted to do more with my life than simply kick a ball." He went back to college and worked in a children's centre in Nairobi before returning to the game with the Colorado Rapids this summer.

Robin Friday Legendary larger-than-life character who earned cult status during spells with Cardiff and Reading, and once famously defecated in Mark Lawrenson's kitbag. Retired early from the professional game, claiming he had had enough of people telling him what to do.

FALLEN CHAMPIONS

"My team Pumas UNAM are the current league champions in Mexico, yet have started the defence of their title with six defeats in the first seven games," writes Chris Wood. "Is this the worst start for a team defending their league championship?"

The hapless Pumas have now extended their stuttering start to seven defeats in eight, though they've already picked up their first win which is more than poor old Barry managed in 2003. "I would think that Barry Town should have a good shout to have had the worst start of any defending champions," writes Martin Jonas. "They were Welsh champions in 2002-03 and started the 2003-04 season with five straight defeats and one point from the first 12 games. Their first win came in the 21st game on 21 February 2004."

KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE

"Has a goalkeeper ever been booked or sent off for diving?" asked Allam Jeeawody, way back in 2007.

Where better to start the search than with Arsenal's Jens Lehmann? He collected eight yellow cards in the Premier League last season, but the best of the lot came at Chelsea when he got up Didier Drogba's nose by pushing him while the referee had turned his back. Drogba dived pathetically, leapt to his feet and went for revenge with a barge. Lehmann also went down and both players were booked.

It's probably worth mentioning the infamous incident involving Chile's Roberto Rojas, a flare and some fake blood, as reported in this previous Knowledge column, but Luis Vallespín's story about the Real Madrid goalkeeper Paco Buyo comes closest to a goalkeeper booking for diving. "Real were playing Atlético Madrid in December 1988 and Atlético's Paolo Futre was sent off for punching Buyo," declares Luis. "But TV replays showed Buyo had fallen to the floor without being punched so he was suspended." Lehmann would be proud.

"Has a player ever been transferred during a season, then finished that season as leading scorer of two different leagues?" ponders Scott Cuthbert

"Watching Arsenal thump Wigan at Emirates Stadium on Saturday, I noticed that Chris Kirkland was wearing a cap," says Gunther Lindley. "Have there ever been any high-profile out-field players who preferred to wear a cap while playing? Would this even be legal?"